Slack Surfaces turns channel conversations into interactive workspaces
Slackforce Surfaces turns a user's prompt to Slackbot into interactive reports, polls, dashboards, presentations and microsites. It gathers material from relevant channel conversations and permitted connected applications such as Google Drive and Salesforce. A completed Surface can be pinned to a channel for colleagues to use and comment on. Slack says support for live data begins in October.
Artificial Intelligence··Morning
A prompt becomes a working object in the channel
With Slackforce Surfaces, a user tells Slackbot what they need and the system creates an interactive report, poll, dashboard, presentation or microsite. The Verge reported that Slackbot gathers material from relevant conversations and connected applications such as Google Drive and Salesforce. Techzine Global also described the feature turning a prompt into a live dashboard, presentation, microsite or calculator. The generated Surface opens inside the Slack workspace instead of requiring a separate file exchange.[1], [2]
The team can work on the same Surface
A finished Surface can be shared and pinned to a channel. Colleagues can view the material, use its interactive elements and leave comments. In Slack's example, a user requests an arcade-themed dashboard that divides AI-token use among sales, design and engineering; Slackbot builds the interactive view. The company says Surfaces retrieves only material that its AI tools have permission to access, applying the workspace's existing access boundaries to the information it gathers.[1], [2]
Access includes free plans
The Verge reported that the feature is available to every customer with Slackbot enabled, including users on free plans. Slack says Surfaces will work with live data from October. Chief marketing officer Ryan Gavin described dashboards, decks and reports being built where the conversation already takes place. The arrangement is designed to let teams work on a shared output without exporting channel context to another tool, while permissions determine which connected information can be used.[1]
